Travelers' Original Accounts Since 1840 



spray beat upon our faces, so as to drive all the breath out of 1864 

 our bodies — how the wind, caused by the falling mass of water, 

 blew about in a thousand blinding gusts (as if old Aeolus had 

 untied every single sack, and let out the whole of his seminary 

 for a general holiday), dashing the rain into our faces and chests, 

 or driving it against our backs and legs, or both ways at once 

 with equal fury — or what I did, or what I saw. I do not 

 know where, or why, or how I went. I only know that I went 

 down into this watery hell, and came up again uninjured, but 

 very much out of breath and awfully frightened, half blinded, 

 more than half deafened, and three-quarters drowned. The 

 rest was comparatively simple — merely a scramble through the 

 mist over slimy polished rocks, a swim across a little pool, and 

 a climb to a chair fixed on a rugged crag, when I found myself 

 out in front of the Fall, with a splendid view of it looking 

 upwards before me, and, the greatest novelty of all, a circular 

 rainbow all around me, at times too even doubled. Five minutes* 

 rest upon the crag, and we retraced our steps — for there was 

 no other way back again to terra firma — and then in again 

 amongst the rain and the din of waters, more panting for breath, 

 more struggling with the wanton gusts, more bewildering of the 

 eye and ear, more clinging for bare life to the slimy rock, and 

 climbing up the slippery stair-case; and so we reached the more 

 hospitable regions of the open air, and again ran the gauntlet of 

 the curious eyes that awaited our return to daylight — less 

 nervous, perhaps, about their gaze, after what we had faced 

 below, but very much more degag£s and disreputable. I do not 

 know that I should care to make the expedition again, though I 

 met one rather stout Canadian, who told me he went down regu- 

 larly twice a week, under the idea that it would reduce his fat; 

 but I am not by nature amphibious, and I consider the feat well 

 worthy of the certificate with which the guide presents the visitors 

 before they leave, testifying to the fact that they have " passed 

 through the Cave of the Winds." 



313 



